“I was pretty disappointed when Marjorie Liu had to leave “Black Widow” for “X-23,” because I was loving the feel of Daniel Acuna and Liu’s take on Natasha. To make matters worse, I wasn’t wild about “X-23”. I tried the first arc, but had dropped it before we even got to the end. Liu’s writing was strong overall, but inconsistent art that frequently wasn’t to my tastes kept me from coming back, so instead I sulked about missing “Black Widow.” “X-23” #13 is a whole other story, and one that has me saying “Black Widow who?…”
Click here to read the rest of my CBR Review of X-23 #13.
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Tags: comics!
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I really appreaciate how Liu is actually addressing the various traumas X-23 has suffered in the past. It makes a nice change from other authors, who decided to write X-23 as a tortured assasain who is also an underage prostitute and (for the trifecta) practices self mutilation; then never went on to address any of this baggage. There is nothing wrong with a tortured main character per se. But when they keep reminding us of how tortured X-23 is, but do nothing to even begin to address it, it ends up looking exploitative. I’m glad Liu has broken with that particular tradition and is giving X-23 some legitimate character development.
Needless to say, Phil Noto’s art, and in particular his ability to convey emotions via facial expression and mannerisms is outstanding. Hopefully, he’ll get another run on X-23 some time after this one.
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I bought this issue on your recommendation, and rather liked it. I sort of disagree with Herring, in that I don’t really like it when they address some of her past, because the biggest issue I have with X-23 is the prostitute thing and would rather that just never be mentioned again. Child prostitution is a big problem, but I don’t think having a female Wolverine murder machine also a prostitute is really the way to address it.
But otherwise, it was good. But my true dream is that DC will call up Marjorie Liu and get her on a Cassandra Cain series, since the two characters are so similar. Really, this issue would be a good prototype for a Black Bat & Spoiler book, since X-23 and Spider-Man are the same basic character types.
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I think I fall somewhere between the two of you. I like that Liu is handling things well (in this issue particularly I thought it was well done). But I’m not wild about her past, either in concept or execution, so I don’t love Liu delving too deeply into it. She’s doing a nice job though I think of not really going there, but not ignoring it entirely…it’s a good balancing act.
Phil Noto is just killing it at Marvel…first Wolverine & Jubilee which was gorgeous and now this X-23 run.
Seeing what Liu is doing here, I think she’d be a great voice for Cass Cain. I’d love to see them give her the reigns on that character.
Glad to hear people are taking my advice on comics and not being horribly disappointed though! WIN!
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